Hero Of The Week 2-21-15

(H/T WeaselZippers) This week's hero of the week goes out to a Virginia Capitol Police officer that helped a returning soldier. This guy and his war dog were inseparable in Afghanistan. The dog, Spike, served him and his buddies by going in to harms way, again and again to sniff out danger and protect them from some of the sneaky crap they had to deal with.

When Jared Heine returned back home, like many veterans, he suffered from PTSD. One of the things he talked about most was missing his work dog Scout. Jared's mother went to work to try to find out what happened to Scout. It turned out that he was still working, and now with the Virginia Capitol Police. When she got in contact with our hero, Officer Laura Taylor, the officer faced a hard decision. For her, it was the right thing to give Spike to Jared, and help him try to close the loop on his time in service. So here's to you Officer Laura Taylor (and Spike), our Hero(s) of the week:

http://wtvr.com/2015/02/12/k-9-with-virginia-capitol-police-reunited-with-u-s-marine-from-combat/

Just because..

Hero of the Week 2-7-15

This week's hero of the week was pretty much a no-brainer. I don't usually give out the Hero award to royalty, but this week was different. The ISIS cowards decided to make public the video of how they had burned to death a pilot they had captured after negotiating for weeks with the Jordanian government. The enraged head of state did what any leader would do in such a circumstance. First he executed the ISIS troglodytes that were being negotiated for, and then he led airstrikes on ISIS targets: not another coddled royal twerp, this guy. So here's the hero of the week award to King Abdullah II of Jordan. Fly it until the last piece stops moving.

I see that, I though of this..

(Via Instapundit) I saw this story about a study of the microbes of in the New York subway system. It notes:

"Almost half of the DNA found on the system’s surfaces did not match any known organism and just 0.2 percent matched the human genome.”

 My thoughts immediately went to Jeff of MIB:

Afghanistan - a different view

A worthy read from Jerry Pournelle on the situation in Afghanistan here (at the bottom of that entry). It confirms everything I know about the arms that our military is using good and bad.

Um, still not the best

 

I noted this article about a British sniper with 171 kills that has surpassed America's top sniper Chris Kyle in kills (160) and the Sun is touting as the top sniper ever. Um, no.. that's just wrong. The top ever would have to be Vasily Zaytsev. As Wikopedia notes:

a Soviet sniper and a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II. Between 10 November and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and other Axis armies, including 11 enemy snipers

 Note that for most of his 400 kills he used a standard issue Mosin-Nagant. The Mosin is an awesome rifle, amazingly accurate, even with open sights. But still, it takes a God given talent to be that accurate at those distances consistently. Regardless,  you have to admire all these men who, under the conditions and horror of war, have the courage to employ their talents to protect their fellow soldiers and their country.